1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automatic faucet device for cleaning a human body such as hands or feet with ozone-water for sterilization in working sites of the medical care, public health and food industry and in domestic houses, and particularly to an automatic faucet device for performing pre-cleaning of a human body with water and subsequently, automatically performing sterilization of the human body by contact of the human body with ozone-water for a specific period of time.
2. Description of the Related Arts
As a cleaning device making use of the sterilizing effect of ozone-water, a hand wash basin type used for working sites of the medical care has been known, for example, in Japanese Utility Model Laid-open No. Sho 63-42294. However, it is difficult to obtain a sufficient sterilizing effect by cleaning using ozone-water only in a small amount. In particular, in the case of cleaning a human body having contamination such as sebum and body fluid other than bacteria to be sterilized, a large amount of ozone is consumed to remove the contamination from the human body. In this case, since the degree of contamination is not specified, it is difficult to set a quantitative sterilization standard. Such a problem has been already appointed, for example, in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. Hei 7-108056. Another problem is that if a human body is cleaned with ozone water in a large amount or at a high concentration to obtain a sufficient sterilizing effect, there may occur a fear that the strong oxidizing force of ozone-water exerts adverse effect on the skin and the like of the human body.
To cope with these problems, there has been known a method of pre-cleaning a human body with usual water or a surface active agent to remove contamination adhering on the surface of the human body up to an allowable level and then bringing the human body into contact with ozone-water having a concentration in the order of several ppm for a specific period of time. This method is also taught in the above document, Japanese Patent Laid-open No. Hei 7-108056.
Incidentally, a number of persons are accustomed to cleaning using usual water or a surface active agent, and particularly persons at working sites of the medical care are sufficiently skillful in such cleaning, and accordingly, even if the contents (such as the utilization amount of the surface active agent and the like) of the pre-cleaning are entrusted to the user, a relatively constant cleaning effect should be achieved. However, in the present circumstances, a number of persons are not skillful in the sterilizing manner using ozone-water. Even in the case where a human body is stuck with less contamination in appearance, the human body should be pre-cleaned before cleaning using ozone water for obtaining a sufficient sterilizing effect by the cleaning using ozone-water; however, most of persons busy with tasks, for example, in hospitals are forgetful of the meaning of the pre-cleaning. On the other hand, there may often occur inconveniences that some persons forget the use of ozone-water after cleaning using a usual surface active agent or the like; forget to check the starting time of sterilization by ozone-water and fail to confirm, in the course of sterilization, a remaining time within the sterilization period of time; and stop the use of ozone-water in the middle of sterilization resulting from misunderstanding of the period of time required for sterilization by ozone-water. In such circumstances, the sterilization level may be varied against the users' will and a large stress may be given to the users in cleaning using ozone-water.